The Atheologian

Parsimony and xkcd

2012-02-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the most parsimonious explanation is that during half of my waking hours I myself am in fact the author of xkcd, but that I am so tripped out on acid that I realize neither this nor the the fact that I have ever taken acid.

Bad haiku of the night

2012-01-25T23:45:00.002-07:00

internet teaching . . .
manifold system problems
cause unhappiness

I don't like that = you are discriminating against me

2012-01-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

Now the LSE is acting just as cluelessly as the UCL. Do either of these student unions have any idea what actual discrimination looks like? The UCL apparently even believes that posting a cartoon of Muhammad with a pint automatically qualifies as racist. Sure: what other motivation could an atheist group have for promoting a critique of a religion, or defending the freedom to make such critiques, other than racism? Does the UCL have any clue how much it trivializes actual racism with this move?

Here's Jesus and Mo's own take:

Quotes of the day

2012-01-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

From Thomas Frank's Pity the Billionaire (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2012):

One reason the bogeyman of the Invasive Regulator can still mobilize the troops, I think, is that small businesses actually experience the regulatory presence, such as it is, far more acutely than do their big-business colleagues. When we talk about the age of deregulation or the era of "neoliberalism," we are referring to the gradual rollback of certain banking rules, the rise of a certain school of economic thought, and the privatizing of certain government functions. These are important developments in the grand, historical sense, but to a struggling small-business owner they might seem completely irrelevant. It's hard to convince a man sweating over a fifty-page income-tax return that the state has gone away or that markets are now in charge. (p. 101)

and

Small business is the face of the Right today because its pugnacious, anti-big-business message catches the bitter national mood; what the Right actually does is deliver the same favors to the same people as always.

Which is to say that behind the mask stands the hated megacorporation itself, making all its usual demands for lower taxes, sedated regulators, and free-trade deals with countries where labor unions are unknown. (p. 107)

Huntsman will drop out of the Presidential race

2012-01-15T21:54:00.001-07:00

Jon Huntsman, the one Republican candidate who respects science across the board and appears not to be a pandering, demagogic hypocrite, is dropping out of the Presidential race. That's a real shame. Even more of a shame is the fact that he seems to have dropped out because he used up all of his money on NH. I realize there is scarcely any point to my saying this—everyone claims to agree, but no one lets it dictate how they vote—but a candidate's financial resources should have nothing to do with his or her ability to make a strong bid for office.

Wonderful life

2012-01-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

No, not the Stephen Jay Gould book, though that's cool, too.

I'm working on more content for my Applied Ethics courses at Arizona State University, but had to take a quick break to express how excited I am. The first substantive unit of my ASU classes starts tomorrow, I also begin my second quarter as a student at Portland State tomorrow (with the first class at 8:15 in the morning, which means I will get to see a lot of Portland fog!), and then my Introduction to Philosophy courses at Scottsdale Community College launch on Saturday. Such tremendous fun!

It's too bad the rest of the world is such an abyss of despair.

Incidentally, here's some amateur video I shot of Portland State yesterday, so you get to share in my joy and pride in my little campus:

Remember the lives you can save

2012-01-03T11:43:00.001-07:00

Hume's Ghost reminds us that if we haven't yet taken the Life You Can Save pledge, the start of a new year is a good time to do so. I make my own contributions at tax time: in the meantime, I am using Charity Navigator and GiveWell to do my research. Please don't give blindly—food is critical, but only as a stop-gap and crisis-response measure. Long term reduction of suffering also requires medicine, development, education, security, and family planning: a good mixture may do more good over the long run than exclusive focus on emergency relief.

Happy 2012

2012-01-01T20:20:00.001-07:00

I would like to wish a most excellent new year to the motley band of ne'er-do-wells that for some strange reason still follows this blog. Here's hoping that each of you will find effective shelter from the imminent Mayan Apocalypse.

Focus

2011-12-02T17:07:00.001-07:00

The main reason I have returned to school instead of studying mathematics on my own is because I have found with experience that absent the structure a university program imposes, I lack the discipline to stay as focused as the study of mathematics requires. Case in point: next week is finals week, I have several half-read books scattered around my apartment and a couple of high-priority ones that I have not yet even opened, yet it is all I can do, passing by the new-book display in the library, not to check out the book Invasive Pythons in the United States. That I will not be reading that book over this weekend is a testament to the focusing power of being in school.

But oh, will that book ever haunt me.

Sartrean slip?

2011-11-27T22:15:00.001-07:00

I use LaTeX to typeset my notes for my philosophy courses. I am working on my Sartre notes for Philosophy 101, and just discovered that where I intended to write "\begin{enumerate}," I actually wrote "\being{enumerate}." A simple transposition of letters, or something of deeper significance?

Template for unhelpful mail

2011-11-19T17:53:00.001-07:00

Many people who send me critical feedback seem to be using variations of this template:

------

Dear Dr. Vuletic,

I read your article such-and-such. In it you argue for X. Since I disagree with X, I haven't bothered to read your article carefully, and instead have angrily attributed to you all sorts of things that do not follow from what you have written, and have responded with the most knee-jerk, sophomoric objections I can think of. Since I don't like your arguments for X, that also means that you haven't made any arguments for X, proving once again that people who say the things you say are too afraid, arrogant, and intellectually dishonest to write about what you have just written a whole article about. In conclusion, let me make a few rude comments to you, which I feel entitled to make simply because I disagree with what you wrote: rest assured, even though the article I am responding to was one of your polite works, it is perfectly fine for me to be a pompous ass in return, because I am one of the good guys.

Sincerely,

Idiot

Kaneda! Kaneda!

2011-11-17T23:43:00.001-07:00

If I had a dime for every time this happened to me, I would have maybe twenty or thirty dimes.

Courtesy of xkcd.

'Mistake'

2011-11-02T23:01:00.001-07:00

When Schopenhauer was not too busy pushing landladies down flights of stairs, he occasionally would write a little bit about philosophy. His writings clearly are the work of a true philosopher, in that the reader alternately is shocked by Schopenhauer's stupidity and clubbed over the head with his absolute genius, but never gets a moment of rest between the two. Schopenhauer's scribblings on music are a case in point: if you would like an excursion into lunacy, read what he says about the correspondence between the voices and the grades of nature (in the first paragraph of The World as Will and Representation, Book II, Chapter XXXIX). Soon after that nonsense, however, Schopenhauer points out—with great insight, I think—that lyrics are of purely secondary value compared to tones (even the tones in the singer's voice) in terms of what music represents. Lyrics can, of course, completely contradict tones—a fact that often is put to humorous use, as when one fits happy words to a dirge, or dark and depressing words to a light melody. And if you are like me, you say in these cases that it is the lyrics that are inappropriate, not the tones: it is the responsibility of the former to match the latter, and not the other way around. What I would not have managed to articulate for myself is that this mismatch sometimes occurs even when the very creator of a musical piece intends no irony.

I'm sorry—all of this is just a long-winded way of introducing something I recently heard and really liked: 'Mistake' by Moby, which I think expresses practically the opposite of what the lyrics say. The way the piece was used in The Next Three Days (perfectly, I think) seems to confirm to me that others are hearing what I hear in the tone, and ignoring the lyrics. But here's the piece, just to listen to. If you don't like my taste in music, at least you have learned something about Schopenhauer, and have a philosophical experiment you can run here (plus, screw you, pal).

Reduction

2011-09-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

I'm just writing to let everyone know in advance that I am likely to severely reduce the amount of writing I do on this blog, even from its current low. As you know—since I have done nothing but rave about it for the last week—I have relocated to Portland, where I am soon to start studies in mathematics while maintaining full-time online work. On top of that, the city is so comfortable, and so full of interesting and welcoming people, that it is making a strong claim on such free time as I have. If I am dancing and jet-boating in my time off, something has to give, and this blog likely will be one of the weaker links.

I still will leave it open in case I have a lazy day, or my priorities change, or there is something that I absolutely must make an extended comment about, but in the meantime if you still want to keep up with what I'm reading and what I'm finding interesting in the news world, the best way to do so is by monitoring my twitter feed, which is much easier for me to work with. Any extended articles, as usual, I will announce to twitter and post on my web site at www.vuletic.com/hume.

JabRef

2011-08-31T17:05:00.002-07:00

If you use LaTeX and BibTeX, and are having trouble managing a bibliography, JabRef is a handy tool. My notes would pretty much be dead without it.

Portland is cold

2011-08-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

When I got out of bed this morning, I actually shivered because it is cold. How exciting! I finally am back in my element. It's strange how comfortable I am with the cold, and how miserable in the heat: already I notice the people around me generally dressing much more warmly than I do, and I just came in from Phoenix. Anyway, just a little more personal happiness to share with everyone.

Another day in Portland

2011-08-29T22:05:00.001-07:00

Every day I have had in Portland so far (all four of them) has been a great day, but today was extra-special in one respect. I must confess that there was one aspect of the last three days that I was not especially happy about. You see, one of the reasons I have fled here from Arizona is to escape the hideous glare of my nemesis, the Ancient One, who some people today call "the Sun." And behold, when I arrive in the Pacific Northwest, there he still is in the sky, mocking me. Well, this morning, I was in for a treat. This is the way Portland is supposed to look:

In your face, life-giving Sun! Where is your solar brilliance now?

(It actually came back later in the day. But I'm not bitter. At least it's not 116°.)

Portland

2011-08-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

I successfully completed my move yesterday to Portland, Oregon. I will be pursuing a postbaccalaureate in mathematics at Portland State University with some assistance from the GI Bill, while (in a major, major coup) continuing to teach my philosophy classes online exclusively. Moving to this city and returning to school are two dreams I have had for quite some time; I thought both would have to wait until retirement, but when you love something enough, you find a way.

I have been walking all around the city since I got here, almost in a daze, noting familiar spots, learning about some of the unfamiliar ones, and of course acquiring a library card and checking out books from the magnificent Central Library. I can see that it will take discipline for me to sit down and do my teaching and my studies when the streets pull at me like a magnet: Portland is the closest thing to a utopia I have yet experienced. It is as though someone took most of the best places in the Chicago area—the ones for which I still feel homesick—folded them together, and placed the result in a region with more hills, more greenery, and much better temperatures. Aside from the risk of apocalyptic geological activity, it is difficult for me to find anything here I don't like.

I still do have to wonder, in advance, whether I eventually will tire of living here. It seems as though I have a difficult time staying in one place for more than four years. At the same time, some cities just get in your blood, and no matter where you end up going, you always miss them. Well, only one way to find out.

Two shots facing downtown from the rooftop of my apartment building in the Goose Hollow neighborhood.

How people in science see each other

2011-08-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

I can confirm that most of this applies directly to people in the humanities as well.

Hummingbird video

2011-08-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded my first YouTube video—it's a little under two minutes of hummingbird nest-building activity, shot about a year ago in California with a dinky Sony DSC-W30 mounted on a tripod:

Hummingbirds are awesome.

Damn straight, Brazil

2011-08-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

H/T: Friendly Atheist.

Protest for more cats

2011-07-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

I apologize in advance to everyone except Jerry Coyne, but I woke up with this stuck in my head, and can't get it out, so naturally I must inflict it on as many innocent people as possible:

- What do we want?
- CATS!
- When do we want them?
- MEOW!

That is all. Please return to your daily routine.

Pat Condell on Oslo, rape, and Islam

2011-07-25T19:04:00.001-07:00

I like Pat Condell. He is extremely harsh, but usually appropriately so, given his standard targets—Islamism in Europe chief among them. I also appreciate that he holds the line against Islamism without jumping into bed with the lunatic elements of the European right, which, so unfortunately, is more than one can say for about half of the loudest contemporary voices against Islamism. However, Condell—like everyone—occasionally gets some things very wrong.

One of Condell's recent videos includes the claim that "all the rapes in [Oslo] over the past three years—all of them—were committed by Muslim immigrants using rape as a weapon of cultural terrorism." This is a truly extraordinary claim, which jarred me when I heard it, but not enough to make me fact-check it—which means I too, got things very wrong. Fortunately, Juan Cole's most recent post just linked (as a sidenote) to a post in Islamophobia Watch that takes apart thoroughly the Oslo rape claim. The blog clearly has its own agenda, but I can't argue with the figures, which are all that matters in this case.

Once again, a demonstration of the importance of not limiting our reading and listening to those who we know in advance will tell us things we will be inclined to agree with.

Another major Kindle book sale

2011-07-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com is having another big sale on select Kindle books. I have already tweeted the most important titles, but they deserve as much exposure as possible, so here are the ones I bought:

Loftus: The Christian Delusion $2.99
Stenger: The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning $3.99
ibn Warraq: Why I Am Not a Muslim $1.99
Pickover: Archimedes to Hawking $1.99
Jones: The Quantum Ten $1.99
Stenger: Timeless Reality $0.99

I rarely spend more than $3.00 on a Kindle book, but I made an exception for Stenger's book on fine-tuning because it is very recent (the hardcover came out on 26 Apr) and looks like something I am required to own in one form or another.

The Second Law of Thermoromantics

2011-07-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

On any book swap shelf, the quality of the books will steadily degrade until the shelf holds nothing but romance novels.